You only get one chance, except when you get two
by Turbolen
Summary: Basically Shepard was a Bastard his entire life, died, and came back a changed man. Now he must continue his life while dealing with his old reputation and past decisions. He also has to get used to the slight problems Cerberus had while bringing him back
1. Chapter 1

Ok, first story. I've been reading these ME fanfics since just before ME2 came out and I was inspired to try writing my own. I've had a few ideas floating around in my head, and I was going to do a story about this particular version of Shepard during the events of ME1, but then I had better ideas for starting with ME2. So, here we are.

Anyways, William Shepard was basically an evil bastard throughout ME1 and pretty much his entire life beforehand as well. Earthborn and Torfan origin stories, naturally. I hope you like it (otherwise what the heck am I doing here?)

Also, just so everyone knows, I am not even going to attempt to write any sort of romance thing in this story. I may not know exactly where I'm going with this, but I do know that. I'll leave that crap to the people who think they know what they're doing.

Please let me know if you spot any spelling mistakes or inconsistencies.

* * *

**You only ever get one chance (Except when you get two)**

**Chapter one**

William Shepard awoke up in a sterile white room. "Bluh? Where the fuck is this? I don't remember being..." he mumbled, squinting in the bright lights.

"Shepard, get up!" Female voice over an intercom…

On auto-pilot, Will attempted to sit up quickly on the bed, then fell over, clutching at his ribs "NnGaaaah! Ssson of a...!" he grumbled, as pain shot through his body. As though in reply to his outburst, the voice came back.

"Shepard, I know your injuries aren't fully healed yet, but I need you to get moving! We don't have much time before this sterile room is breached."

"Where the hell am I? Why am I in a sterile room?" He asked "Wait, breached by who?"

"Just trust me, I'll explain later. Now, put on the envirosuit in the case to your left"

Will opened the case and frowned as he held up what had been folded up inside, and saw the fitting helmet. "Isn't this is a Quarian envirosuit?"

"It's been modified so it will fit you, now put it on! The air outside that room is not safe for you to breath."

"Alright, alright! At least it has shields..." Will took his shirt off and froze, staring at his own chest, completely shocked. His entire torso was covered in massive crisscrosses of long, thin scars, all of them fairly new and straight, probably made by very complex medical equipment. One of them stretched from his throat all the way down to his groin, as though he had been cut in half. _Holy incisions..._ He thought, although he thought he could recognize a few older scars, the ones he'd picked up throughout his dangerous life. As he looked at his arms and hands though, he noticed their skin was clean and fresh, clear of all of the little nicks and calluses they'd once had. He wished there was a mirror in the room, or something reflective so he could see his face.

"We had to do a lot of work to get you back on your feet, Shepard. We weren't able to finish before this attack began, otherwise we'd have been able to clean up those scars as well." Will looked up and noticed a camera mounted on the wall tracking his movement. He threw the shirt over it, then finished undressing. The voice over the intercom was not amused.

"What the!… Cute, Shepard, now hurry up! Our security forces are holding out for the moment, but I don't think they can last much longer"

It took a little while for William to figure out how to put on the thick and uncomfortable suit. Then he removed his shirt from the camera with a smirk.

He glanced at the face shield before locking it in place; it was opaque, as all quarian face masks seemed to be, and tinted red. _Cool…_ he thought. The face shield locked in with a few clicks, and he heard a beep as the interior of the helmet lit up. Something that looked like a boot up sequence scrolled down in front of his eyes. _What is this, Quarian script? I can't read this…_

The disembodied voice interrupted his thoughts again, "We didn't have time to fully translate the suits HUD for you. It should be fairly easy to figure out what it means, though."

"Right" William said, as what he assumed was a shield icon lit up on the bottom of his visor and a bar next to it quickly filled up. The helmet beeped again, and a pistol icon with a "# of shot's before overheating" counter on it popped up next to the shield icon. He picked up the pistol from the locker and it unfolded quickly. He checked it quickly, then double checked the seal between the suits helmet and faceshield. It all seemed fine so he looked over to the camera and said, "Alright... I'm good to go."

"OK Shepard, I'm about to unlock the doors to your room, there should be security personnel outside, help them get to the shuttles, I'll meet you there. Control out."

Shepard glared at the camera as the doors opened "Well, please and thank you to you too, bitch."

* * *

Sorry, I know it's really short, but I need sleep, and I figured this was a good a place to stop as any. Hopefully I can scrape enough time together to make the next chapters longer and soon! (hopefully I can find time to do this thing at all!)


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you so much for the reviews so far people. It means a lot to me to know that there actually are people out there who have read and seem to like what I put down, even though it was ridiculously short. Sorry about that, I got a little too excited to get started. Anyways, you've probably already noticed that I won't be following ME2 word for word. I'll need to switch things up a little to make the story work better (also, you know, just because I can) I've fiddled with chapter one a little, nothing major, just swapped around a few word's to make it read a little better.

Xxxxxxx = scene change

Bioware owns mass effect

* * *

**Chapter two**

Will glared at the camera as the doors opened "Well, please and thank you to you too, bitch."

Outside was a hallway, with several dead security personnel slumped at defensive positions. There was also one very much alive biotic, who lifted and pushed a crate down the hall knocking over and crushing several mechs just as he door opened. Will ran out the door and slid behind makeshift barricade, taking cover from the remaining mechs fire. "Oi!" he shouted at the man, who ducked behind the same barricade, "What the hell is going on out here?"

"Shepard? Miranda told us to make sure the mechs didn't get to you!" the man said "We got here just in time to lock down your door and set up positions before the mechs caught up with us, I've been holding them back for the last half hour. I've burnt out all of my clips; I don't suppose you have a few extras?"

Will took a quick glance over the crate at the mechs, then tossed the guy a clip before running across the hall to another barricade, shooting down two mechs as he did, and also taking note of where the remaining ones were. "There's just two on the right." He did this all before the security guy even had the clip loaded. "On three?"

The guy nodded. Both of them pop out of cover and light up the mechs plodding down the hallway. The mechs counter attack by collapsing in a heap and sparking. The two humans get up and face each other. "So, you obviously know who I am, who are you?" asked Will.

"Jacob Taylor, I'm… I was head of the security team on this station. Things must be worse than I thought if Miranda was forced to wake you up ahead of schedule again. Regardless, before the coms cut out she told me to get you to the shuttles and meet up with her there. I'll fill you in on the way."

Will just shrugged "Alright, it's your station, lead the way."

xxxxxxx

They walked along the hallways chatting, while shooting the occasional mechs. "I'm no expert, but when they brought you in here, you were nothing but an armor coated meat Popsicle" Jacob shrugged. "When the Normandy blew up, the explosions sent you out to the middle of nowhere. You wound up floating through space, frozen solid. Basically, you've been dead for two years, and during that time we've been working to get you back on your feet."

"You're kidding me! It's only been two years?" Will exclaimed.

"Uh, yeah. Why, were you expecting it to be a longer wait than that?" Jacob asked, puzzled at Shepard's reaction.

"The way things were going where I was, I figured it would have been a few centuries before I got back, at least!" Will attempted to rub his forehead as he always did when puzzled. His hand bonked into his forgotten visor, and he realized that Jacob had no protection whatsoever from the supposedly unsafe air. "Wait a minute, if this air is unsafe to breathe, than what are you doing with no protection?"

Jacob looked away from him for a few seconds, and then said "I'll let Miranda answer that one, when we meet up with her at the shuttle. How could you have known we were bringing you back at all?"

"They told me they were giving me a second chance." Will winced, realizing that he'd probably sounded crazy just then.

"Um, I'll probably regret asking this but, who are 'they'?" Jacob asked with raised eyebrow.

"All I'm gonna tell you is that I died, and after… adjusting my priorities I was allowed to come back." Will glared at him. "I'm not crazy."

"I'll take your word for it, but why did you think you were dead for centuries?"

Now it was Will's turn to look away for a few seconds. "You know the old saying 'time flies when you're having fun'?"

"Yeah?"

Will glared at him "Well, flip that saying around to 'time crawl's when you're miserable', and let's just say that during what I went through, two years seemed to take about 300 times longer."

Jacob looked at him warily. "Huh."

"Yeah, I thought you'd say that." They were walking through an office when Will noticed a computer terminal that had been left on. "Hold on a second, this looks interesting." He pressed play on a video report that apparently had been recorded a few days previously. A hologram of a woman popped up, spouting what sounded like a Mission report.

"Physical reconstruction of subject is as complete as possible, despite Wilson's betrayal, but that's not as important as Shepard's mental state. Our orders were clear: bring Shepard back just as he was before his death. The same mind, the same morals, the same personality. Humanity needs someone like Shepard, someone willing to do anything to get the job done. If his identity is altered in any way, if he's somehow different than the man he used to be, this project will have failed. I refuse to let that happen. Wilson attempted to wake Shepard ahead of schedule, before his brain had time to recover. This was an obvious attempt to destroy Shepard's mind. Luckily he was stopped in time and Shepard is again in an induced coma. Wilson has been dealt with and we are now working on finding his accomplice in the security team."

Will rolled his eyes "That's the bossy lady who was giving me orders as soon as I woke up!"

"Who, Miranda? Hah! Yeah, that definitely sounds like her. We need to keep moving though; we're almost at the shuttle bay now."

"Good, I really need to ask this Miranda person a few questions. Though I doubt she'll like to hear how things have changed."

After fighting through another crowd of dumb plodding mechs, they finally came to the shuttle bay. The door opened and they saw Miranda waiting for them near a Kodiak drop shuttle.

"You must be Miranda." Will said, nodding.

"Shepard, Jacob, we need to move, I've spent too much time and effort bringing you back to life to let you get killed by a bunch of mechs. Into the shuttle, move."

"I'm fine, thanks, how are you?" Will said, rolling his eyes again and boarding the shuttle.

xxxxxxx

"Before you meet the boss, we need to ask you a few questions to evaluate-"

"I have a few questions for you first, if you don't mind." Will said, interrupting Miranda.

Miranda sighed "I suppose we have time to indulge your curiosity, commander."

"Call me Will. Now, why am I in a sealed, modified Quarian suit?"

"Well, let me start from the beginning. A couple of weeks ago, one of our medical team betrayed us and tried to kill you."

"Kill me again, you mean." Shepard interrupted, again.

Miranda ignored him "We stopped him, but apparently he had an accomplice in the security team who sabotaged our security systems and sent the mechs to kill everyone on the station, starting with the rest of the security team. Apparently he forgot to omit himself from our personnel lists, and he was one of the first to be killed."

"Instant karma." muttered Jacob.

"Ok, so where does the suit come in?"

"I was getting to that commander, stop interrupting. Wilson attempted to wake you prematurely, before your brain was fully recovered. Had he been able to wake you up completely, you would now have the IQ of a varren. Luckily we were able to stop him in time and put you back into a coma. Unfortunately, the combination of being blown up, frozen, thawed, cut apart, put back together and then being bombarded with drugs has had… adverse effects on your brain and body. The human immune system adapts over time to recognize specific pathogens more efficiently. This adaptation process is referred to as "adaptive immunity" or "acquired immunity" and creates immunological memory. Somehow your immunological memory has been completely erased, and your immune system is now worse than the average Quarian's. Theoretically we could coach your immune system back to full strength, but that would take several years. And years are something we are rapidly running out of, thanks to the reapers. So, we had to take a page from the Quarian's book and modified one of their better classes of envirosuit to fit you."

Will just sat and blinked, then leaned back in his seat "Ok, well that was my first question, what's yours?"

Jacob activated his Omni tool, pulling up some files. "Info on your life is very hard to come by, commander. Our records say that you were born on earth, and were practically raised by gang members. Do you remember any of this?"

Will looked thoughtful for a minute. "Not 'practically', I WAS raised by a gang. I don't know for sure if I was born on earth, but I was probably about two when the tenth street reds took me in. I heard from some of the older members a few years later that they'd found me unconscious and stuffed in a dumpster. Apparently my good for nothing prostitute of a mother, or possibly father, decided they didn't want a brat around anymore, but didn't have the balls to actually drown me good and proper before throwing me out like so much garbage. Anyways, the boss thought I looked tough and figured it might be useful to have a kid who was just a ghost on any records. The gang members who found me brought me to a crooked doctor they knew who, for a price, patched me up and gave them a fabricated ID for me. Thus was the beginning of life with my ever increasing debt to the tenth street reds."

Jacob just stared at him. "I… uh…"

"Ah, don't worry. I'm long past caring about why some jackass wanted a two year old out of their way. The way I see it, I've got enough problems now that I don't need to start digging up my own past. Besides, being raised like that helped me quite a bit during my career with the alliance."

Miranda cleared her throat. "Ahem, on to another question, when you were-"

"Ah ah ah!" Will interrupted, for the fourth time. "My turn to ask one now, thank you. You're obviously not used to talking to people who aren't your subordinates. Now, who do you work for? The most likely organizations, the ones who have the reasons and resources to bring me back, would be the alliance or the citadel council. Now, the alliance always saw me as something expendable to drop behind enemy lines and forget about until the enemy lines dissolved into chaos, so they're out, and I'm sure the council has had plenty of time to learn of the many, many reasons why they wouldn't want someone like who I use to be back. Also neither of them really believe the reapers are real anyways... Meaning the only organization that I know of, that has the resources and reason to do this, is maybe… Cerberus?"

Jacobs jaw dropped, and Miranda looked annoyed.

"You're obviously more observant than your alliance record's would indicate" said Miranda, looking out the window.

"Oh come on, I used to be a walking WMD; it's not that surprising your illusive man had already tried to recruit me at some point. I suppose by resurrecting me he expects I'll be grateful enough to join up permanently this time?"

"I believe it's our turn to ask another question, is it not?" asked Miranda, glaring at Will.

"Alright, go ahead, shoot"

Miranda just continued glaring, as though wishing she actually could just shoot him. "During your military career, you survived some pretty heavy fighting, most notably on torfan. Do you remember anything about that?"

Shepard lowered his head, looking at his hands. "My entire squad was made up of troublemakers the alliance didn't want to deal with any more, people whose skills made them too valuable to execute. People like me, and I was the "best" of the lot. I sent most of them head on to distract the slavers, while I took a small squad around behind to do what I do best. We ran into a little trouble, that was when I got my scar" He pointed at his left eye and ran his finger down his cheek. "A real bastard with some kind of machete or something damn near got me."

Miranda cleared her throat and said "You realize we can't see your face, right?"

"What? Oh, right the stupid visor! Ah, well. Um, where was I?"

"Torfan? Your squad?" prompted Jacob, who loved a good war story.

"Right! The frontal assault was, of course, not the best way to do it. All those soldiers, I sent them to their deaths. I didn't even look for another way. But they served their purpose, and my squad were able to get behind enemy lines. We rigged up traps, killed dozens by collapsing tunnels on them as they returned from wiping out or distraction team. We had to take them down, and we were all expendable if it accomplished the mission." he tried to rub his forehead but his hand bounced off the visor again. "The thing's I did there..."

"What did you do?" asked Jacob, quietly. Miranda was silent. She had seen the official reports on torfan, and also the "unofficial" ones.

"I'm sure you've heard horror stories of what the Batarians did during the skyllian blitz. I made them suffer a hundred times worse than any of their victims suffered, and I never felt regret for what I did there… until now."

"Why do you now?" asked Jacob.

"Because project Lazarus has failed! That's why!" yelled Miranda, startling Jacob and Will to silence. "'The same mind, the same morals, the same personality.' Complete failure! You, 'commander' are not the same man you were before you died. I don't know if it was the drugs, Wilson or waking you ahead of schedule, but according to my mission parameters you are now completely useless to Cerberus!"

"Yeah? Well, we'll let your pal the illusive man decide that…"

* * *

LOTS OF TALKING! Some Shepard back story there, for you. Hope it's not too ridiculously over the top. I think from now on I will try to put up new chapters on Saturdays. That way I have a whole week to work on new chapters. (I'll likely end up waiting till Friday night before I even start, but I'll try not to) if things go really well I will post earlier.

A little bit of info on immune systems from Wikipedia was slipped in here, but the rest of it was pulled out of my bottom; hopefully it seems at least somewhat sense making. The term "Meat popsicle" is from _the fifth element _(which is a great movie!)


	3. Chapter 3

WOOHOO, it s up! Man, for whatever reason, I had a hard time writing this one. Sorry it's barely longer than chapter two, but I just wanted to get the talking with TIM out of the way.

If anything is confusing or inconsistent with previous chapters or even if you just spot spelling mistakes, please let me know, and I will do my best to fix it. I sometimes have a lot of trouble transforming what I have in my head into what you read here, so I'm always nervous that I may have missed something. I've been told I have a tendency to assume other people can read my mind.

Anyways, time to talk to TIM! Eventually.

Oh, right! last Saturday I also changed chapter 2 a little bit, nothing crazy, just added a tiny bit more near the end and cleaned up a few spelling mistakes. Forgot to put that in my note last week.

*******1** = explanation/authors note at the end of the chapter

Xxxxxxxx = scene change or some time has passed

mass effect is biowares

* * *

**Chapter three**

"-according to my mission parameters you are now completely useless to Cerberus!"

"Yeah? Well, we'll let your pal the illusive man decide that. Personally I think I'm far better off now than I ever was back then, even if I will have to deal with my past actions coming back to haunt me… or bite/kick/shoot me in the ass."

The shuttle remained silent after that, until it arrived at a space station.

"Out techs here will help you optimize your armor and set up your omnitool, while I give my report to the Illusive man. Please wait for them here." Miranda said, as they walked through some kind of waiting room, just out of the hanger their shuttle landed in.

"Well, at least she said please, for once" Will shrugged, and Jacob just grinned. A tall man walked up to Will.

"Commander? I'm Nathaniel, the head technician at this facility; it's an honor to meet you, sir. Please come with me."

Will followed the tech-head through a door into what he assumed was an elevator. Nathaniel took a bulky yellow Hazmat suit from a hook on the wall and put it on, sealing it. "We will need you to remove your armor before we can finish it for you, and teach you how to use it properly. A Quarian envirosuit is far more complicated than your standard armor, after all. This hazmat suit I'm wearing will keep you safe from me; although it's a bit of an improvisation I'll admit. This room is a decon chamber which will sterilize the exteriors of our suits. My team is already in the clean room and waiting for us."

Will just nodded that he understood as the room filled with a heavy mist of chemicals meant to kill off bacteria and other potentially harmful organisms. The door on the other side of the room opened after the mist was sucked out through vents near the floor, revealing a sterilized lab with gleaming equipment. There were two other techs in hazmat suits waiting for them, fussing around a hastily set up table with assorted gleaming tools and bits of armor on it. They had obviously had to sterilize their equiptment, then rush it all into this clean room, so they could accomodate him. "Just step behind this curtain here, commander. We need you to change out of your suit, so we can work on it."

Will did as he was instructed, and noticed a mirror behind the curtain as well. He took a good look at himself in his Quarian suit, thinking_ Damn, I really do look like a Quarian, right down to the glowy eyes… WAIT, WHY ARE MY EYES GLOWY!_ He quickly disconnected his helmet and saw that, yes, his eyes were indeed a glowing blue, instead of their former greenish grey. Then he noticed something else. _My scar__*****__**1**__… is different now… what?_ "What in the hell did Miranda do to me?" he asked Nathaniel after he'd removed the rest of his suit and put on a clean outfit. He handed the suit to one of the techs as Nathaniel answered his question.

"Honestly, commander, I'm not entirely sure. My team and I were only around to fix, and sometimes build, the advanced equipment that her team used. If you are specifically concerned about your eyes, I believe your originals were so severely damaged that they had to be completely replaced with cybernetics."

"Cybernetics? Couldn't they have just cloned some new ones? What else did she replace?"

"I have no idea, sir. I would suggest you direct your inquiry to either Miss Lawson herself, or the Illusive man, when you meet him. Now, please, let us return to the task at hand. I must admit this modified Quarian suit idea was one of several backup plans in place, just in case something like this total immune system failure happened. We had to rush it once we learned you would actually need it for certain, and now, here we are. We still needed to attach extra armor plates, boost your barrier strength and install the stealth field generator."

"Install the who what now?" Will asked, eyebrow raised.

"Ah, yes. During the war with the geth, and your little two year 'vacation', numerous technological advances were made by the alliance military, or stolen from the geth. One of these was a personal stealth field generator, which basically makes the user temporarily invisible. At least to most known sentient species, anyways. They are, however, prohibitively expensive to produce, so only the best alliance infiltrator teams are equipped with them. We managed to acquire some for our most elite operatives, including you, commander."

Will shook his head "I'm no Cerberus operative. I'll work with Cerberus again to stop the reapers, as that's the main reason I was allowed back in the first place, but that's it. If your illusive man thinks I'm going to-"

"I meant no offense commander; whatever you and the illusive man work out is between you and him, and no business of mine. I merely made assumptions, which now stand corrected. I apologize."

"Well… that's alright, then. That was fast, are we done here?" Will asked one of the tech's who had been patiently waiting during his conversation.

"Yes, sir. We had everything ready and waiting for you when you arrived, and only needed to hook it all up. We updated the barrier systems and added extra armor, and have integrated the stealth systems with your new omnitool. We recovered your old omnitool with your body, and were able to transfer all your data over to the new one for you."

Nathanial took over. "All we need to do now is to help you put it back on, properly this time. Long term envirosuits, like this one and the others normally worn by Quarian's, are far more complicated to use and live in than normal combat hardsuits or short term envirosuits that you are used to. You can't just 'throw it on' and as it's extremely likely you won't have many opportunities like this to remove it, we'll need to give you a crash course on how to put it on and use it properly. There are the water sterilizer and storage systems, the CO2 scrubbers, dozens of little filters, temperature compensators, onboard VI, status detectors, etc, etc. the list is almost endless! For now though, let's start with the basics. First, how to properly connect and disconnect the waste collection and disposal units…"

Xxxxxxx

Will walked uncomfortably out through the decontamination room back to the waiting room. "Well, that was exactly the most humiliating hour of my life. I take back any comments on how comfortable these suits may or may not be." He told Jacob, who'd apparently been taking a nap as he waited for Will and Miranda. Jacob opened his mouth. "Don't. Ask." Jacob shut his mouth. Will sat down, taking a food tube out of one of the many pockets he'd discovered while getting to know more about how his suit worked, and glared at it. "This… is also going to take some getting used to." He took off the cap and put the end of the tube in a small slot on his face mask, as the Cerberus techs had instructed him. He clicked a barely noticeable button on his face mask next to the slot, and his mask clamped onto the tube, then sealed and sterilized the connection between it and the tube. He used his tongue to flip a sort of straw, built into the helmet, down into his mouth and sucked until the tube was empty. "Well, At least this shit doesn't taste to horrible, though I bet I'm gonna get sick of it reeeal soon unless I can find some other flavors." He then went through the process of removing the empty tube, and cleansed the straw by sucking some water from the suits built in camel pack*******2** through it.

They sat for a while in silence, Will fidgeting uncomfortably every now and again, until Miranda came back; apparently having finished her report to the Illusive Man. She seemed have calmed down and cheered up quite a bit, and said "The Illusive Man would like to speak with you, Commander. It's just through this door, then down the stairs."

"Thank you, I'm on my way." Will said, curtly, then getting up and saying "I'm going to have a chat with you later." as he walked out. Miranda looked at Jacob, eyebrow raised. Jacob just shrugged.

Xxxxxxxx

"Commander Shepard. It's good to see you alive and well… so to speak."

"Timmy. We meet again."

"I see you do remember me, and persist in continuing your use of that nickname."

"As I recall, you owe me quite a few favors. I suppose, however, that you helping to bring me back would have canceled those out?"

"You suppose correctly." the illusive man took a drag of his cigarette. "Although, I didn't bring you back just to reminisce about the past. The future is of far more importance right now. As far as I'm concerned the slate is clean between you and Cerberus."

"Welp, that's great! I hope you don't mind me taking off then, ciao." Will turned, about to walk out and back to the shuttle.

"Just a minute, Will. There are a few things we do need to discuss. Most notably the Reapers, but also several other important things as well."

Will sighed and slumped his shoulders for a second, then turned around. "Alright, you want to talk; then let me ask you a few questions first."

"Very well, Commander. Ask away."

"Well, first of all, how the hell did you get Miranda to stop being such a cranky bitch? I mean, she looked practically cheerful coming out of here!"

The illusive man seemed to smirk a little. "All I did for her was point out that project Lazarus did not, in fact, fail as miserably as she seemed to believe it did. The point of project Lazarus was to bring you back, as you were before your death. While the project technically is a failure so far, I don't see it as quite over yet."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I don't really believe you've changed. Oh, I believe you may want to, and maybe even think you have. But only time will tell if "Bill the Batarian Butchering Bastard" truly does become a fully functional human being. Besides, I know that it's possible you could become even more useful, being willing and able to talk to people instead of blowing up everything you see."

"Oh hell. Is that really what they're calling me now? How… Lame."

"Whatever you may think of the nicknames others give you, I feel I should warn you. During the months after your death, numerous fictitious documents and psych reports were leaked by the alliance, and the council. Reports about you and many of your former crew mates. Much of the galaxy today believes that you either became unstable after you were hit by the beacon on Eden prime, or were already crazy, considering the stories told about torfan. Your excessive paranoia about an ancient genocidal machine race was just further proof of your instability. The councils words, not mine."

"So, the alliance brass finally got around to telling the council that I wasn't actually their choice*******3** for the first human Spectre, and that the only way I got in was because of a communications flustercluck, involving Nihlus and one of Hacketts aides. Huh. They wouldn't want to let out that one of their best agents made such a mistake, so I'd bet they haven't spread that story around yet, have they?"

"No, they haven't, and that works in our favor. Regardless of what they think of you personally, we both know they can't ignore what you did, stopping Saren and the geth. They believe you died, and so never officially revoked your Spectre status. You are still technically a Spectre, if an infamous one. I'd recommend talking to councilor Anderson to ensure you are still recognized as such by the alliance and the council, but I'm sure even you would have a hard time convincing them, given your reputation."

"Yeah, I'm going to have to deal with that eventually. Alright, since we both know I have no one else willing and able to help me fight the reapers at the moment, I may as well hear you out. What do you know about the reapers?"

The illusive man "Human colonies are disappearing all over the traverse, and I have a hunch this involves either the Reapers or someone acting on their behalf. I would like you to go and check it out, as you are one of the few people in the galaxy who have ever met a reaper face to face and survived. I have a shuttle ready to take you to freedoms progress, the latest colony to be abducted. I want you to take Miranda and Jacob and look for clues. Afterward's you are under no obligation to stick around."

"You think the Reapers are targeting humans specifically? I guess that makes sense… we were the ones who killed sovereign, after all. Alright, I'm in. Not like I have any leads of my own after being out of it for two years. What do you think I'll find there?"

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be sending you. Find any clues you can. Who's abducting the colonists, do they have any connection to the Reapers. I brought you back… it's up to you to do the rest."

* * *

For some reason, I keep imagining that Nathaniel guy to sound like John Cleese.

*1 The William Shepard I made for the cancelled ME1 playthrough story had a large scar all down his face (as all badass renegades should.) I decided he got it on torfan. Of course, for some reason Miranda removes your scar in ME2. His scar is basically the same as the renegade ME2 scar, but more natural looking, and the size won't change. Also his eyes are glowing blue right away because I thought the whole "changing renegade/paragon appearance" thing was annoying and pointless. Plus hey, now he's easier to mistake for a Quarian at first glance. I have a feeling this will get many stupid people in trouble. (Not necessarily Will, though)

*2 Camel packs are like small backpacks with liquid filled bags fitted with tubes from which hikers, cyclists, runners and the like can get hands-free hydration. I figure Quarian's would have something like this built into their suits, and I'm going to assume they have a built in water filter/sterilizer as well. Personally, I think that realistic Quarian suits would be far bulkier than they are depicted in the game, but then I guess Tali wouldn't be eye candy, lol. For the purpose of this story, Shepard's suit (with armor) is similar to the Cerberus assault armor, but not quite as bulky, and with an N7 paintjob. (The assault armor is actually where I got the original idea for this story from.)

*3 Basically, (in my story) Shepard wasn't supposed to become a Spectre. He was sent to Eden prime because he was the best (and only) infiltrator close enough to be picked up by the Normandy on the way to Eden prime. Also, to the alliance, he was totally expendable. As in, they kept throwing him at situations like torfan hoping it would kill him.

OK! I will do my best to have chapter four done on time. I have bits of either chapter 5 or 6 started at the moment (depending on how chapter four turns out) because I had some ideas about the first visit to omega.

If you have any ideas or speculation on what you think should/would happen in the next chapter or even this entire story, feel free to send them to me! Even if I don't use your ideas, they may help give me other ideas. Either way I will give you the credit! I just need some extra inspiration sometimes.


	4. Chapter 4

BONUS THING! This was going to be the beginning of my ME1 playthrough story, but by the time I finished the first chapter (eden prime) I realised I was basically just copying the story and just changing the diologue a little. That would have been boring, and I had better ideas for ME2 anyways.

Chapter 3 is also up now.

mass effect is owned by bioware

* * *

_Udina: "What about this Shepard? Earth-born... no record of family."_

_Anderson: "Shepard? Doesn't have one. He was raised by the tenth street reds. They found him in a dumpster when he was two; the boss apparently figured he seemed pretty tough. He learned to look out for himself. Eventually the cops caught up with him. Then he turned states evidence against his old gang, got a good deal too. Full immunity and acceptance into the alliances N7 training."_

_Udina: "What had he done?"_

_Hackett: "Records say he was probably involved in a few dozen murders and quite a few less serious crimes."_

_Udina: "'probaby?'"_

_Anderson: "There was never anything pinned on him, but I guess he figured it was only a matter of time."_

_Hackett: "We're getting off topic, what do you know about his service record?"_

_Anderson: "As one of our best infiltrators, he gets involved with a lot of black ops. He's even done a few missions for our cerberbus group."***1**_

_Udina: "What about his actions on torfan?"_

_Anderson: "Again, he's never had anything pinned on him. Besides which, the alliance sent those men to die, and Shepard knows it. That's why we've ensured no war crimes charges were ever pressed. Beside which, there were no surviving witnesses anyways."_

_Udina: "That in itself sounds suspicious..."_

_Hackett: "Regardless, he can get shit done, no matter the cost."_

_Udina: "Well, yes! But the man's borderline psychotic! You know what I've heard he did to those Batarian POW's? He-"_

_Anderson: "Yes, Yes, we've all heard the rumors about torfan, but like I said nothing can be proven and there are no live witnesses. Shepard could have just let those rumors out himself to enhance his reputation for ruthlessness, and help keep his men in line. I've seen it done before."_

_Hackett: "If nothing else he's the most qualified expendable asset the alliance has in the area, so if anything real nasty shows up on this pickup run, you'll probably be glad to have him around. Even if only to throw at attackers while other forces bug out with the beacon"_

_Udina "As long as he doesn't get out of hand..."_

_Hackett: "The council's sending a Spectre agent to help the pickup go smoothly. He should be able to handle Shepard if he goes rabid." (Chuckles)_

_Udina (nervously): "Could you imagine the political shitstorm if the 'Butchering bastard of torfan' was made a Spectre? Even the damn Hanar have heard of him. What a mess that would be..."_

_Anderson: "Regardless of the rumors and his reputation, having an expendable asset like Shepard along will be useful; we can pick him up on the way."_

_Hackett: "I'll make the call."_

_

* * *

_

*1- Cerberus was originally an alliance black ops group. They went rogue with the illusive man sometime a little before ME1, after Shepard was finished working with them. Shepard didn't help admiral kahoku, or have any involvement with cerberus during ME1. (although if I think of a good way to tie it in, I might change that)


	5. Chapter 5

Dang it, my mind is like a sieve. I get all these awesome ideas for this story during the day at work, but by the time I get home or even when I find something to write them out on, I've already forgotten them.

I hope you're all happy. I put off starting Fallout new Vegas so I could finish this chapter. lol

Anyways, thank you, amwdrizz, for your comments and suggestions. We'll see how things turn out. Also, thank you anonymous reviewer, your mentioning of the interview with khalisah got my mind going pretty good the other day. I will definitely be doing something with that in this story. (Unfortunately, it won't show up until we get to the citadel at least once.)

Work (of course), and my American friend constantly tempting me to play Battlefield BC 2 with him on Xbox live, kinda slowed things down to a crawl. (I think I only had about 700 words done last Saturday) I do not know how real authors can focus long enough to finish anything…

Also, just so everyone knows for certain, this is *not* a romance story. If it was, I would have called it such. Technically, (Gasp! Spoiler!) it's not exactly a friendship story either. Not yet anyways.

There will be a couple of references to a slightly different ME1 story in this chapter. I will explain these at the end of the chapter. Originally I was going to first write a story about William Shepard's life and career before ME2, and then this story, but that story didn't get much past chapter one and I never even started posting it up here. I will be slipping bits of it in here and there so you have at least a vague idea of what went on.

* * *

"Jacob and I are ready to leave whenever you are, Shepard. I'm eager to see if you live up to the illusive mans expectations."

"What's the matter Lawson? Worried you aren't going to be the favorite anymore?"

"I've proven my value to the illusive man. I have my doubts you'll do the same."

Will sighed. "Ok, it looks like we'll be working together for a little while, so I think we should get this out of the way now, rather than later. We may have got off on the wrong foot, but your attitude is getting a little hostile and…"

"I have the utmost respect for your abilities, commander." Miranda interrupted. "It's your motivation that worries me. I believe in what Cerberus stands for, but only time can tell if you prove to be an asset or a liability to our cause."

Will rolled his eyes. "Yeesh, Never mind. Before we go, though, I'd like to know more about 'project Lazarus' from the person who was in charge."

"I wasn't in charge, the illusive man was. If I was, we'd have done things differently."

"Like what?"

"For starters, I would have implanted you with some sort of control chip or a failsafe of some kind. But the illusive man figured it would adversely affect you, and he wouldn't let us do anything that might limit your potential somehow."

Will just chuckled "Heh. Seems to me that Cerberus has a bit of a bad habit, when it comes to fail-safes. Although, I gotta admit, were I in your position I would have done it regardless of what Tim says."

"The illusive man is taking an incredible risk with… what?" Miranda looked totally flummoxed, as though she had been expecting him to say something completely different, and Will decided right then he would get her to make that face every chance he got.

"I mean, I can understand why you would have wanted to put one in me. After all, you were trying to bring back a former Spectre, who was also an N7 marine, an Infiltrator, a coldblooded killer and an all-around murderous bastard. Someone who's been in combat one way or the other for basically his entire life. If I was going to wake up something like that on my little space station in the middle of nowhere, and something went wrong, I'd want some way to shut him down before he blew the whole place to hell and buggered off to wreak bloody vengeance across the galaxy. Especially considering how almost your entire security team could barely stand against a bunch of rogue mechs."

Miranda looked stunned. "I… that was my reasoning as well. I didn't expect YOU, of all people, to agree with me though."

"That's because you keep expecting me to be like that person you've read all about in your little dossier. Well, big dossier. You were right in the shuttle before, I'm not the same person I was. Being dead for a few years can really change a person, and I have a feeling we're ALL a hell of a lot better off for it." Will started walking towards the shuttle, motioning for Jacob to join them. "Anyways, we should get going."

Xxxxxxxxx

Things went downhill after that almost pleasant conversation.

"First you say I'm in command, and then you jump all over the first thing to come out of my mouth!"

"All I said was that it's unlikely there would be any survivors!"

"And you knew TIM already told me that, so obviously you saying it again wouldn't change anything anyways."

Jacob, desperately attempting to change the subject, stated, "Almost looks like the colonists just got up and left in the middle of dinner."

Will took the hint, and looked around at the pre-fab structures around them. "Yeah. No bodies, no abnormal damage, nothings exploding or on fire. At least we know it couldn't have been Batarian slavers then."

Jacob snorted, as though trying not to laugh, and then looked serious. "Unless they've found some way of knocking out an entire colony full of people, all at once. Man, this place is starting to give me the creeps."

"Tell me about it, the silence kinda reminds me of Feros after we killed the Thorian." Shepard bowed his head, "Except there *were* a lot of bodies around then…"

All three of them jumped as gunfire erupted on the other side of the colony. "Shit. Sounds like there's a party going on up ahead! There's may still be someone here after all!"

Just then, a trio of mechs marched around a corner up ahead and noticed them, then instantly started shooting. "Targets acquired" they announced in perfect unison, apparently to nobody in particular.

Will, Jacob and Miranda dove for cover, Jacob taking out the lead mech with lucky shot to the face while doing so.

"Damn it, why is it whenever I hang out with you guys I get shot at by mechs!" Will yelled as his shields recovered from the completely unexpected attack.

"This is new! At all the other colonies the security systems were shut down!" Miranda shouted over the gunfire, and then hit the second mech with an overload causing it to explode.

"Someone must have scrambled their IFFs, they shouldn't be considering us a threat." observed Jacob, after Will leapt over his cover and shotgunned the last mech in the face.

"Sounds like there might actually be some survivors after all" Will said, looking pointedly at Miranda, who ignored him.

They quickly and quietly made their way across the empty colony, searching for the source of the gunfire they'd heard earlier. As they made their way to check a building with a low wall in front of it, they noticed a pair of mechs attempting to enter it. The three of them managed to avoid being detected immediately by ducking quickly into another abandoned house.

"I've got a feeling that whoever activated the mechs is either in that building or trying to kill whoever's in that building." Will whispered to his companions.

"How do you know they're not just trying to kill US?" hissed Miranda.

"No one should even know we're here, unless Cerberus has even more security leaks you haven't found yet. I'm going to try sneaking up on those mechs, give this stealth thingy a whirl."

Miranda and Jacob looked at each other. Jacob just shrugged and Miranda said "Alright Shepard, we'll be here to back you up."

She didn't add, "If they start shooting your face off", but Will could have sworn she was about to. Nodding to her, he activated the stealth generator with his suits built in omnitool, then quickly and quietly snuck out the door towards the unsuspecting mechs. He used his omnitool to quickly hack their systems and shut them down. Will then signaled Jacob and Miranda to join up with him. "Alright, Miranda, Jacob, you two get behind cover out here, so you're out of sight when I open the door."

Miranda looked at him like he was an idiot. "Are you sure that's a good idea, Shepard? Whoever is in there is likely hostile."

"That's enough out of you. You will also hold your fire, unless I give you the OK! That's an order. Besides, they'll probably just think I'm a Quarian, and who thinks' of a Quarian as a threat, except maybe to their purse." He waited for them to move into position. Turning to face the door he muttered, "Here goes nuthin'…" then hacked the door, which opened to reveal a half dozen startled Quarian's, drawing weapons and diving to defensive positions. "The hell?" he started, and then quickly held up his open hands to show he was unarmed and not hostile.

"Stop right there! Who the hell are you?" yelled a male Quarian, aiming an ancient (but in very good condition) assault rifle at Will.

"Prazza! I said I would handle this!" a female walked up to the front, a perfectly maintained HMWSG X shotgun in hand. She had a familiar voice as well…

Suddenly, for the first time in his life, Will was genuinely afraid. Tali, the one living person in the galaxy that probably had the most reason to want him to stay dead (besides perhaps, the Reapers) was apparently in charge of a group of Quarians aiming weapons at him. Also she had a shotgun. "Oh, hell." He muttered. Then he thought; _where the hell did she get that shotgun? I don't remember giving one of those to her._

Apparently, Prazza thought as much of Talis orders as Miranda did of Shepards, because he continued asking questions, "Why you wearing human alliance military insignia? Are you with Cerberus! We should shoot you where you stand!"

"Prazza, you… idiot! He's not Quarian, look at his fingers and legs. Who, and what, are you?" Tali asked.

"I'm human, and before I tell you anything else I'd like you to put that shotgun away, please." Will took an involuntary step back, as Tali suddenly swung the shotgun up to aim it at his face. _My shields might be able to take one shot from that thing, but then those fleet marines will just light me up, armored or not…_

"I recognize that voice… Shepard! You're alive? How… I… you… You Bosh'tet! I knew it! The rumors were true, How could you!"

"Whoa! Tali, let's not do anything we're all going to regret! Yes, I'm alive again, and I'm not…"

"Spare us your lies, Shepard! You left me to die on the citadel***1**, and then stabbed the whole team in the back! And for what! To disappear? And join Cerberus?" she yelled, brandishing her shotgun.

"_This is going to shit pretty quickly, Miranda…"_ Jacob said, over the comm.

"_Shepard? These Quarians know your with us, should we intervene?" _Asked Miranda over the comm. Shepard signaled a negative while answering Tali.

"Yes, I abandoned you on the citadel. I can't tell you how much I regret that now, and not just because you're pointing a shotgun at my face. But I did NOT stab the team in the back!"

"_I hope you know what you're doing, Shepard…"_

"You joined Cerberus! And to cover it up they destroyed the Normandy, so everyone thought you'd died!"

"What? I… Cerberus… I had nothing to do with the Normandy's destruction! That was some kind of reaper agent, no one else in this galaxy has weapons that can take apart a ship that fast! You know that!" Will was totally confused now. What sorts of rumors had been going around after his death? "I got spaced! I died! Cerberus found me and brought me back, because apparently they're the only people who still believe the reapers are actually a real threat!"

Tali lowered her shotgun "I don't trust Cerberus. Or you. The old crew still knows the reapers are real. Anderson still does as well. And we all know that we need your help to stop them." She sighed, and then jabbed him in the chest with her finger, adding "That that doesn't mean I like you, and it's the only reason I'm not killing you myself."

"Look, I trust Cerberus about as much as you do, and the feeling is mutual, I'm sure. I'm not exactly thrilled that they're the only organization willing and able to help me against the Reapers, but I've got no choice at the moment." He sighed. "I know what this looks like, but I'll tell you right now that I'm not the same person you met on the citadel two years ago. Being dead can really change a person. Fortunately, I think I've changed for the better, despite the… issues I've had since being brought back to life."

"That remains to be seen." said Prazza, butting in, still aiming his rifle at Will. "Now, why are you wearing one of our suits?"

"Prazza, put your weapons away. Whatever Shepard is here for, it's obviously not to fight us."

"Tali's right, I'm just here looking for clues as to why our human colonies keep disappearing." Will slowly lowered his hands as the rest of the Quarian team slowly lowered their weapons. "As for the suit, there's someone who came with me who could answer that question better."

"I should have known you wouldn't be here alone." Tali sighed "bring them out."

"Only if I have your word that your team won't just gun Cerberus personnel down on sight."

"Fine, you have my word. Hold your fire, people, unless they try to do something stupid." Prazza looked as though he was about to say something impolite after Tali said this, but stopped himself.

"Alright team! Get up here! And stay civil, please."

"As much as I'd like to chat with a bunch of *Quarians*, you do remember that we have a job to do, commander?" Miranda said, as she and Jacob made their way out of cover.

"A, your sarcasm has been noted and ignored, and B, I thought I told you to stay civil. These fine people" he gestured to the Quarians "would like to know why I'm wearing their suit."

"Well, *I'd* like to know why these Quarians are here. We, at least, have a legitimate reason."

Will sighed and shook his head, looking at Tali as though to say, _"See what I have to deal with here?"_

"You're in no position to ask questions right now. But under the circumstances I suppose I can understand your concerns. We had nothing to do with the colonies abduction. One of our people came here on his pilgrimage, his name was Veetor. He was having trouble with his suit, so we took a detour and stopped by to help him out. When we arrived, there was nobody here except him. When he saw us arrive, he panicked and holed up in the security office, then activated the colonies security mechs, telling them to shoot anyone on sight."

"Why would he run from fellow Quarians?" Will asked, puzzled.

"Veetor is a little… ah, different. He was injured and was always nervous around…."

"He's a nutcase;" Prazza interrupted, bluntly "combine that with damaged CO2 scrubbers and a possible infection from open air exposure and he's probably delirious."

"If this Veetor was here to see the colony attack and he survived, he could be able to help us out, commander." said Jacob.

"True, we'll need to team up, Tali. If he is sick, the sooner we fight through and get to him the better."

"Huh. Commander Shepard, offering to help someone. Never thought I'd see the day."

"Well, I did say I'd changed for the better. Maybe some of your Quarian mentality is rubbing off on me from this suit." Will chuckled "Seriously though, we should get moving."

"I …suppose so; we'd need two teams to get past the mechs anyways…"

"Now we're working with Cerberus!" Prazza exclaimed, furious.

"No, Prazza you're working for me! If you can't follow orders, go back to the ship, or you'll just get your people killed" said Tali. Prazza stalked off, grumbling something about telling the admiralty board, under his breath.

Tali brought up a map of the colony on her omnitool. "Veetor is in this building here, your team should be able to head straight though the colony, as we circle around to the far side and draw off some of the drones."

"Sounds good. Um, when we're done here, I'd like to talk to you again."

"We will, Shepard. You still need to explain that suit, after all."

"Of course, good luck out there, Tali."

Tali paused, looking at him for a second. "I… you too… Shepard."

Xxxxxxxxx

They split up, Will's team blowing through a few drones on their way through the colony. Everything was going fine, until…

"Shepard! Prazza and his squad have run off, heading to Veetor! He said something about not letting Cerberus operatives do his job for him. They want to get Veetor and take him away before you get there. Hurry! We don't have any idea of what he's going to run into."

"We should have expected this. Bloody Quarians." Miranda muttered, as half a dozen drones flew in out of nowhere and started shooting. A short battle ensued, then…

"Prazza has run into a heavy mech just ahead, on the loading dock on the other side of the door in front of you. Get your squad into position and I'll open it from this side." They could hear a heavy firefight starting up on the other side of the door, including the stomping of a presumably large mech.

"We could just let them kill each other off, commander." Miranda suggested.

"Miranda!" Jacob exclaimed

"Two years ago I would have done just that. Today, though, I'm just going to tell you to shut your fucking pie hole, and get over to that door right now. I'm not leaving teammates to die anymore." He switched out his pistol for the grenade launcher, as they moved into position. Will signaled Tali that they were ready and the large door ground its way open, just as the heavy mech fell over.

Xxxxxxxxx

Prazza and his team cheered as the mech toppled over, into a crumpled heap. Their teamwork and coordination had been more than a match for the heavy mech. Prazza looked back as the large door opened behind them, and saw the Cerberus team coming through. "Quickly, get over to the security building and get Veetor." He noticed the one called Shepard waving at him and yelling. He ignored him, waving a rude gesture, and then began to run across the open terrain to the security building with the rest of his squad.

"_Prazza! Watch out! Shepard says there's-"_ He shut off his radio, he did not want to hear Tali right now. _Imagine, a Quarian agreeing to work with Cerberus operatives. The admiralty board will hear of this, Tali!_

None of them saw the second heavy mech coming around the corner of the building until it opened fire.

By then it was already too late.** *2**

Xxxxxxxxx

The Quarians, now caught out in the open, didn't stand a chance. The mech let out a long burst of automatic fire, scything it back and forth through the squad, cutting them down like grass. "Holy crap! Take down its shields" Will yelled, and lobbed his last couple of grenades at the mech. Miranda hit it with an overload, dropping its shields just before the grenades hit, slightly damaging its armor. "Why the hell didn't we bring armor piercing ammo!" he yelled as he switched to his shotgun.***3 **"Pistols aren't going to do much good, try to keep it pinned, I'll go around and flank it!" he ran around a pile of crates while activating his cloak.

Will was able to sneak around behind it, and unload his shotgun again and again into its less defended backside. Staying behind it as it lumbered around trying to target Miranda and Jacob, he burnt out every thermal clip in the shotgun trying to take down the metal beasts' armor, then Miranda hit it with a biotic warp, but it still wasn't quite enough. The mech finally managed to lurch around to face him, but by then he'd already buggered off to one of the buildings on the side of the loading dock.

He dove through an open window, almost landing on an injured Quarian that Tali was patching up. "Oh, hey Tali, you wouldn't happen to have some spare clips, would you?" he asked, as rounds from the mech started pinging off the wall outside.

Tali smeared some medigel on the other Quarians wound, then quickly patched the hole in the suit, "No, sorry. Most of us Quarians don't have weapons that new, Shepard. I've got to help the wounded here, so…" She hesitated, then drew her prized HMWSGX shotgun and handed it to him. "Here, use this. Be careful though, it's loaded with- DON'T BREAK IT!" she yelled as he quickly jumped back out into the fray, activating his cloak again.

Will again made his way behind the mech as it turned around and slowly began advancing on Jacob and Miranda, who were cornered in another building and occasionally taking potshots at the mech. He got right up close behind it, aimed at something that looked important, and pulled the trigger.

All of a sudden, everything exploded.

* * *

Did Will destroy the mech? Will Tali ever find out why Will is in an envirosuit? Can Tali ever forgive Will for his past actions? Will Miranda ever stop being so annoying? Why did everything suddenly explode? And, most importantly, DID SHEPARD BREAK TALI'S SHOTGUN? All these questions will be answered… later ***4**

I hope the actiony bits didn't suck too terribly.

*1: When the team went through the conduit in the Mako, Tali was badly injured during the crash landing on the citadel. (She wasn't strapped in, as she was trying to keep the Mako in one piece while it was taking fire from all the geth colossi) Shepard ordered the team to leave her there and keep moving. She was still recovering from multiple broken bones and very serious infections in Dr. Michel's clinic (no one else would help a Quarian) when she heard that the Normandy was destroyed.

*2: I didn't like how Prazza and co. got wiped out so quickly and easily in the game, so I kinda extrapolated a bit on why that happened.

*3: Shepard is an elite operative and therefore should be trained to use any damn weapon he gets his hands on, even if he specializes in sniper rifles.

*4: Except perhaps the one about Miranda.

Hey all, if you're wondering how the next chapter is coming along, check my profile. I will occasionally tell ya'll whats up with the story there.


	6. Chapter 6

Sorry kids, I'm sure some of you may have noticed I haven't been on for a while. There are multiple reasons, such as getting back in touch with old friends, new videogames, trying to get my license back so I can drive again, other new videogames, etc.

In the little spare time I've had to think about this story (much less write more of it), I find myself wishing I'd started it out it a little differently.

To those of you who genuinly liked what I've written(what little there was), I truly am sorry, but I think I'm going to end up scrapping it. If I can work out the kinks, I would like to try to rework it a bit and start again. But, you know... don't get your hopes up.

Again, I really am sorry, I know how much it sucks when a story you like is dropped right in the middle. (or in this case right at the freaking beginning)

Regards

-TurboLEN7


End file.
